a/n:

WE HAVE TWO CHAPTERS LEFT OF THIS BOOK- i just wanted to say ONCE AGAIN thank you all so much for every ounce of support you lil beans, especially on my instagram you have all been so welcoming and kind to me, i honestly cannot thank you enough.

regarding the next two books in the series, as this book is planning to finish next week i won't be updating the next one 'It All Started Under His Umbrella' until mid-august as i will be on hiatus then.

remember to check my tumblr, instagram, zepeto and wattpad announcements for any updates and feel free to ask me anything.

next chapter… HERE WE COME

Marinette's POV:

I flung open the front door, the loud slam of wood hitting brick resonating through the house. I was mad and confused, why did Luka come back to me when he had Lila? I mean he already has that bitch and besides I ain't up for a ménage à trois, never said I was.

I flopped face down onto the sofa and instantly began overthinking everything that had just happened. What if Luka came back to hurt me, Adrien, Alya, Nino or ANYONE who he knows I love? Alya sat down next to me and patted my back, to be honest I really shouldn't be letting my anxiety get in the way of absolutely every action I do.

Ever since my parents left for Shanghai, and ever since I became Guardian of the Miracle Box, my anxiety worsened, especially with the HUGE responsibility of being Ladybug weighed on my shoulders. Thank god I have Alya, Adrien and Nino to help me, I don't know what I'd do without them, especially since all my family members were nowhere in my reach. I took a huge step with revealing my identity to those three, especially considering the fact me and Chat never actually defeated Hawkmoth and that akumas were still being released, only difference is that now he could release as many as he wanted, unlike back when I was 14 and first became Ladybug when he could only send out one akuma at a time.

I flipped around to lay on my back, my face wet with tears of fear and confusion, Alya still next to me, alongside Adrien. I had no clue where Nino was but… that didn't matter, presuming the fact he was probably in the kitchen vibing while eating cookies like usual.

"I feel like I was too hard on Luka, maybe he just wanted me back, but sucks for him since I already have Adrien... " I trailed off "Well, even if he did want me back, and let's say, I wasn't already with Adrien, doesn't he already have Lila?" I questioned out loud, at this point I didn't give a fuck anymore and just decided to let every thought out, every thought I was bottling up in my mind, I sat up straight, my face still wet with tears and stared at Adrien and Alya, waiting for them to say something supportive before I began. In response I just got a blank stare back from them, as if THEY were waiting for ME to say something to them.

"My life has NEVER been a straight path, it's always been fucked up in one way or another. My parents leaving me alone to go and live in Shanghai, my love life always having problems" Adrien instantly shot me a stare, presuming that I was talking about him, which I kind of was. "It took forever for me to talk to one particular guy without stuttering, blah blah blah, so how could he know that I love him? It's impossible, so I fell in love with another guy. Life got too easy, we held hands, got all kissy kissy and then SURPRISE! We both have secrets, and we both HATE secrets, so we decided we can never be in love. So we break up and live UNhappily ever after, the end…" I let out a shaky breath, tears running down my face, and turned to face Adrien, who definitely understood everything I was ranting about

(yes this was a reference from season 4, as quoted by the queen herself- Ladybug, even though she was referring to the theater film they were watching, she was definitely talking about her own love life)

"Well, t-that was until I finally built up the courage to tell you how I felt, and then of course, we got a little freaky and you know… finally got together." I leaned close towards his face, just so we were centimetres away from each other's lips, he leaned in closer and Alya let out a small cough just to remind us she was still alive and watching everything that was happening.

I immediately withdrew myself from Adrien, winking at him just to let him know that I wasn't finished with him just yet.

"Mari, girl don't be so hard on yourself, you've just stood up to your ex which was REALLY unlikely of you, considering the fact usually you tend to be kinda quiet… no offence." Not gonna lie, Alya was speaking facts, I usually do tend to always be the shy and quiet one. "Look on the bright side and don't let those negative emotions get to you, and most importantly don't let your anxiety get in your way- SILENCE IT." She grabbed both of my hands "Look at me Marinette, look me straight in the eyes. I know you can live your life without anything stopping you, you're unstoppable bub and YOU KNOW IT." tears were welling up in both our eyes, she was right, I was such a naive, stupid you teenager who was just lost and let so many people step over me, I am unstoppable and NO ONE will ever stop be from reaching my full potential.

"That's my girl, you go bitch." She laughed, along with Adrien giving a halfhearted chuckle, I presume I was once again thinking out loud. Alya stood up and hugged me, I definitely needed that from her. I led her to the door and said goodbye. Her and Nino left the house, leaving me and Adrien alone once again. I grabbed him by his arm and led him into my room.

"Ugh Marinette we are not gonna get all spicy right now… are we?" He grumbled tiredly.

"Nope, I was just setting you up… why don't we go lie down, you seem tired." I lied, I definitely was setting him up, he was gonna be in for a very nice sleep and dream… well if I could manage to stay awake.

He flopped down onto my bed and I lay my head on his chest, listening to the slow steady thumping of his heartbeat as we both drifted off to sleep…

*time skip to a few hours later brought to you by Ebay's express delivery (lmfao idk whether that even exists but lets just pretend it does)*

I woke up and glanced out of the window. Nighttime. I then heard the distant sound of clanging outside and realised Adrien wasn't next to me… HOLD UP WAIT-

Adrien.

wasn't.

next.

to.

me.

I called for Tikki and waited for the scarlet kwami to fly out of her hiding place on my desk, but she never came.

I heard the familiar voice of a past akumatization which I didn't want to see again: Sandboy. He was back, four years later and I wasn't prepared in the slightest way.

I made the mistake of opening the skylight to get to my balcony and I felt a wave of golden powder wash over me and came face to face with a certain boy I'd never want to see again. EVER. Chat Blanc.

He was there in front of me, with his usual blank stare, his icy blue eyes motionless and emotionless as he took a step towards me, his head hung low.

Oh no no no NO, I thought to myself, this CAN'T BE HAPPENING. Not today, not now chat blanc, I never wanted to see you EVER in my life. Tears once again formed in my eyes as I remembered everything that had happened when I went into the future to see how bad I fucked up, thank god Bunnyx was looking out for me. I didn't take my eyes off him for ONE second, he slowly took a few more steps towards me and lifted his head up.

An evil smile curled at the edges of his mouth as his cold, stern voice rose.

"M'lady? Is it really you? Oh I was feline so sad that you had to go through that breakup with Luka, but now we finally can love each other- the love we thought was impossible- I will finally get what I want, just for my father." He smiled at me and placed his hands on my shoulders, I shook them off, knowing exactly what he was going to do, he knew my identity and knew I had my miraculous on me.

"Come on princess." I shuddered at that nickname he used "Don't be scared of me, all we need is our miraculouses and then we'll finally live the life we want…" He trailed off and tried to grab my earrings, I screamed and dodged his hand; millimetres away from taking my jewels.

I then felt a warm hand on my shoulder which grabbed me backwards and pulled me into my house, I tried to scream but they covered my mouth. My brain was telling me that it was probably Luka but it was wrong. I grabbed the person's arm and twisted it, breaking free from their grasp. I turned around to come face to face with Chat's face which I could slightly make out from the dim light of the moon shining through the gap in my curtains.

"A-Adrie- Chat… where were you, you left me all alone with Chat Blan-" He placed a finger on my lips to hush me

"Shh princess, everything is fine, I'm still here, don't be scared… who's this Chat Blanc you're talking about?" He wiped my tears with his hand and I mentally slapped myself, I shouldn't have mentioned his past akumatized self, Bunnyx always said to me that interfering with or talking about past and present events always affected the future.

"It's- Look I can't tell you the whole thing since this all happened in the past but the least I can say is that it's one of my nightmares, have you seen Tikki?" I tried to change the subject, he shrugged and Tikki flew out from beneath the ground.

"Ah- Sorry Marinette, I never should've left you alone up here, the kwamis in the Miracle Box decided to just- Never mind, we have an akumatization on hand to defeat." I stared at her, confused as to what was going on inside that box, I'd find out one way or another. I walked up to my desk and opened up the box to get the fox miraculous. I had left it with Alya for a while but then I decided that probably wasn't too much of a great idea, Trixx flew out from the box, still with that sly smirk on her face- clearly she was up to something.

"Tikki, Trixx, Unify"

- after the battle -

I replaced the fox miraculous back in the Miracle Box and let Tikki rest, too tired to remember to ask the kwamis what was going on inside the box. Hawkmoth definitely was on a caffeine drinking spree since all his akumatizations were now all taking place late at night and really early in the morning. I turned around to see that Adrien had dozed off already, forgetting to detransform, I was about to wake him up when his ring beeped loudly and his kwami, Plagg flew out of it.

"Finally, now is my camembert ready Adri- HEY! You're not Adrien… wait never mind Marinette, I'll just go and stay with Tikki here, come on sugarcube." I beamed at the nickname he used for Tikki, their relationship was so adorable, but of course, not as adorable as mine and Adrien's

Plagg dragged Tikki into the Miracle Box and I finally shut it, with a light thump and his it in a secret compartment, I never actually knew existed a couple of years ago when I first got it, below my desk. I turned to see Adrien sprawled across my bed, his leg hanging off the edge, and giggled a little. I lay down next to him and cupped his face in my hands, giving his cheeks a small squish. Honestly who let him be this goddamn cute. I grabbed my phone from the bedside table and scolded through the never-ending load of notifications from various social apps I had, most of them coming from the substantial amount of useless group chats I'm on.

My mind drifted to Luka, a little voice in the back of my brain telling me to give him a second chance, telling me I shouldn't have been so hard on him, I tried to get rid of that thought. I definitely wasn't being hard on him- he deserved every bit of what I said, I didn't give a fuck about whether I had hurt him with words; he had hurt me and the people I loved- verbally, physically AND emotionally, he'd never experience the pain I had to go through, he's too much of a cold hearted person to have feelings.

Adrien gave a vague sigh and moved his head onto my thigh, his eye twitching a little. I moved my head down to kiss him on the forehead and surprisingly, he kissed me back, maybe he wasn't asleep after all.

My heart blossomed with warmth at the feeling of him. I could never imagine life without Adrien. EVER.

Life before we met was nothing, we were only friends and never thought we'd have any chemistry like this… we were both wrong.

I remember on the first night I'd stayed over at his, he said a few sentences which never made me see life the same again

"Marinette, close your eyes"

"Okayy? Now what…"

"What do you see?"

"Nothing…"

"That's my life without you"

a/n: aaaaa i had to just add that romantic and slightly sweet ending, gives me STRONG adrinette AND ladrien vibes at the same time (i just can picture that happening between lb and adrien… probably just me but anyways)…. don't come at me in the comments ladrien haters.

(no cap the amount of writers block i had in this chapter was SO MUCH i spent at least two hours just sitting in front of my laptop trying to gain motivation while watching edits of chat noir being hot for 18 seconds straight… yes i know i'm insane, don't even get me started on accidentally pulling all-nighters just to publish a chapter LMFAO-)

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT YOU ALL NEED TO KNOW: i will be on hiatus from 13th july for TWO WEEKS, i will be back with my publishing on 27th july, i know we have ONLY one chapter and a short epilogue at the end of this book but i need LOADS of time for planning out the next book, 'It All Started Under His Umbrella' which is estimated to have its first chapter released around 1st-3rd of August.

i will leave an authors message tomorrow or later this evening to explain everything a little more, and as well the small shoutouts to some of you lil beans 3

don't forget to check my tumblr, twitter AND instagram for updates, messages and announcements.

stay miraculous!

(word count: 2620- new record?)